Daily Archives: April 10, 2013

It’s OK, Pluto, You’re Not Alone!

Posted on April 10, 2013 by zvgio

A lot of Pluto fans were really upset with Pluto’s demotion from planet to “dwarf planet” back in 2006. I mean what’s not to love about a tiny iceball on the edge of the Kuiper Belt? There is good news though. Despite Pluto’s lowly new title, at least it has some company. The IAU recognizes […] Continue reading →

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Protoplanet Publicity

Posted on April 10, 2013 by burnspress

Scientists have located what they believe to be the first direct observation of a planet forming in its stellar womb of gas and dust. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, Sascha Quanz and an international team of scientists has been studying the young star HD 100546 and its surrounding gas. They were surprised when they spotted […] Continue reading →

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Orbital Resonance and the Asteroid Belt

Posted on April 10, 2013 by gerretyc

Why is it that all of the matter in the inner solar system accreted to form planets, while in between Mars and Jupiter there is still a bunch of stuff […] Continue reading →

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Cratering, Water, and the Chesapeake Bay

Posted on April 10, 2013 by gerretyc

The Chesapeake Bay crater is the largest impact crater in the US.  The meteorite that struck Earth an estimate 35 million years ago cause water and rock to splash all […] Continue reading →

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Social Astronomy!

Posted on April 10, 2013 by sharpew

I am always interested in new ways that information, ideas and stories can be shared or exchanged online. I love all forms of social media including blogs, tumblr, twitter, google plus, you name it. It always helps me learn a new concept if I have a variety of ways to interact with the subject, like […] Continue reading →

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A Sea of Metal

Posted on April 10, 2013 by michaelglindsay

Jupiter’s Composition Jupiter freaks me out. It is huge, big enough to greatly affect the path of any smaller body that is unfortunate enough to cross its path, with potentially adversarial results for Earth. Even more so is its composition. Should you be unfortunate enough to find yourself on a ship heading towards where the […] Continue reading →

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Kepler 2.0 Looks for Earth 2.0

Posted on April 10, 2013 by sharpew

Within the last week, a new break through has been made in the search for extrasolar planets, or planets orbiting another star other than our Sun. As we’ve know, other stars, or other distant suns, hold the possibility of other solar systems. Ideally, these solar systems may contain another Earth-like planet, which could possibly lead […] Continue reading →

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Theories, Theories Everywhere

Posted on April 10, 2013 by michaelglindsay

What the solar system might actually look like with sun’s movement accounted for. The formation of our own and other planetary systems is, understandably, one of the most interesting topics in astronomy. But what interests me even more than our current formation theory is how subject it is to change. I do not doubt its […] Continue reading →

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A Comet Heads For Mars

Posted on April 10, 2013 by jacksonlangham

NASA has discovered that there is “small but non-negligible” chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars in October of 2014. The comet is between 1 to 3 kilometers in […] Continue reading →

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A Breakthrough in Space Travel

Posted on April 10, 2013 by AlanL

There is currently a project underway which aims to send astronauts in a fusion powered spacecraft to Mars and cutting the travel time to just 30 days round trip. Using existing rocket fuels it would take at least 4 years to travel the same round trip and would cost more than $12 billion. Using this […] Continue reading →

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